The Stanton Marris Blog

• Are you delegating efficiently?

  “Climbing the corporate ladder requires you to hand over day-to-day tasks to others. But many people find this very difficult to do – or do it in a way that leaves everyone feeling unhappy and demotivated.”

  I was asked recently by The Financial Times to comment on the knotty task of delegating efficiently. We discussed the most common problems in delegating, how to overcome a fear of letting go, how to delegate well, what tasks to delegate, and who actually gets the credit when you’ve delegated a task?

  I think it’s important to create a sense of ownership and empowerment. The phrase we use at Stanton Marris is ‘freedom within a framework’. But don’t let go fully as that can be very demotivating. Monitor, but don’t meddle; follow up and offer support.

  When deciding what to delegate, the question you always need to ask here is: ‘Can this task or decision be done or made by someone below me?’ If they have the knowledge or capability, then do it. Hang on to broad horizon things.

  Read the full article The Careerist: Delegating efficiently

  Read the full article "Are you delegating efficiently?"

  Published June 14, 2010
  Written by Virginia Merritt. This article is filed under: delegating efficiently
  11 Comments

• 3 simple questions to improve collaboration

  How many businesses do you know with the word ‘collaboration’ in their set of values? In my experience, there are dozens.

  And yet, it’s one of those organisational goals that sometimes seems to run counter to human instincts. As we often say, ‘easy to understand – hard to do’. While everyone signs up to collaboration in principle, it’s certainly not easy to achieve in practice. There are always a thousand reasons why it comes more naturally to work with the people in your immediate team than the team on the next floor, or on another site.

  At the most basic level, managers are busy, and talking to people who aren’t in your immediate loop takes time. It might achieve more for the success of the business than keeping your head down in the tunnel of yet another task, but it can be hard to keep that wider perspective.

  What could this mean for your business? Improve your businesses collaboration efforts by asking these 3 questions:

  • Do you all have a shared vision of the strategy? Go round the table and ask people to describe it in their own words. You could be surprised how much the visions differ.
  • What is pulling you away from the shared commitment you have all made to the success of the business? An honest answer to this question from each key individual could form the basis of a fundamental re-think about how to re-energise the business and make it work for everyone.
  • Has everyone bought into the vision and the strategy? How do you know?  Engaging everyone from the ground up in the development of the way forward is the best way to make sure that, even when times are tough, people retain commitment to the business they have helped to shape.

  Advancing your own agenda might win you a few battles. But it won’t win the campaign. And success in today’s economic climate means that focus on the wider campaign, and being willing to let go of any personal priorities that don’t serve the shared goals of the enterprise, could make the critical difference for your business.

  Read the full article "3 simple questions to improve collaboration"

  Published June 1, 2010
  Written by Beatrice Hollyer. This article is filed under: collaboration, communication, partnership
  1 Comment